TechPlace Leverages Canada Summer Jobs Program to Help the Next Wave of Talent Get Hands On Work Experience

Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) is an initiative of the Federal Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, which aims to provide flexible and holistic services to help all young Canadians develop the skills and gain paid work experience to successfully transition into the labour market. The program provides wage subsidies to employers from not-for-profit organizations, the public sector, and private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees, to create quality summer work experiences for young people aged 15 to 30 years. 

Burlington Economic Development has been leveraging this program for over 7 years, with TechPlace utilizing it since they opened in 2017.  Over 20 summer interns have been a part of this program with Burlington Economic Development and TechPlace. “It’s incredible to watch our CSJ students grow during their time with us and move forward in their careers” said Anita Cassidy, Executive Director at Burlington Economic Development. Cassidy was a leader on the initial hiring of CSJ students back in 2015. “This program is great for us because we get extra brains and hands to move forward projects while giving young Canadians the opportunity to explore new career paths.”

Katelin Mowder is a first-year CSJ student with Burlington EcDev 

“As a Canada Summer Jobs student, I have had the pleasure of working at Burlington Economic Development as a Marketing & Communications Coordinator immediately after graduating from a post-graduate program in advertising this spring. This role has provided the opportunity to gain valuable marketing and communications experience, improve my digital marketing knowledge, written communication, and time management skills. Being a leader in the business community, its rewarding to see the impact that our work at Burlington EcDev has on companies in the local community. I am grateful that the Canada Summer Jobs program has allowed me to take on this role, and I look forward to continuing my career with the skills I have learned.” 

TechPlace LaunchPad Company servicePath Introduces Three Canada Summer Jobs Students

This year, TechPlace co-location partner Haltech and LaunchPad company servicePath are also using the program. servicePath focuses on helping organizations automate the sales process and reduce the time to quote for complex services through their unique “Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)” capability.  

servicePath has called TechPlace home since 2017, this was their first year using the Canada Summer Jobs program. servicePath hired 3 students all in various stages of their post-secondary education, Warren Scobie who is entering their 4th year as a student of the Interaction Design program (Honours Bachelor) at Sheridan College, Nathan Apel a recent graduate from Western University’s Political Science program with an Honours Specialization and Piper Treadwell who is completing their last semester at the University of Waterloo, pursuing an honours bachelor’s degree in Knowledge Integration with a Minor in Philosophy. Daniel Kube, CEO of servicePath, spoke about his experience with CSJ students: “I have loved working alongside our three students this summer. They bring a fresh perspective and vibrant energy to our team. Our management team gets to mentor and coach young adults which is very rewarding and helps produce top tier work.”

TechPlace co-location partners Angel One and Haltech have both leveraged the CSJ program. This summer Haltech has employed 3 summer students to take various roles including a Graphic Designer, Event Coordinator and Business Consultant. In 2019 they brought on Shane Ropp to be the Marketing Intern, he later came back to the team in a full-time capacity.  

“My experience with CSJ acted as a strong foundation for my future career development. Being a CSJ student intern in 2018 with Haltech got me familiar with the tools I would be using in the future and set me up for success post-graduation. I’ve been full time with Haltech for 1 year now and am excited to continue my career that was spring boarded by CSJs”  – Shane Ropp, Marketing Manager, Haltech 

“CSJ is one of our most important sources for talent. Haltech gets the opportunity to meet people early in their careers and can work together on strategies for their development. The people we onboard thanks to CSJ do critical work for Haltech and truly contribute to the success of our clients.”  – Shann McGrail, Executive Director of Haltech 

“Canada Summer Jobs is one of my favourite programs funded by the federal government. This summer, there are more students employed in Oakville North-Burlington than ever before – 572 student jobs were created in our community thanks to $2.5 million in funding. There is a big demand for jobs in our riding and this program allows youth aged 15-30 gain real-world work experience, build leadership skills and prepare for their future careers in an impactful way.”- Pam Damoff MP, Oakville North-Burlington 

The Canada Summer Jobs program is currently closed. Applications will reopen in early 2022, businesses looking to apply should monitor the webpage here. If you are looking to hire young Canadians and students prior to 2022 please connect with the TechPlace team here.